The “Stare in the pretty lights my pretties” documentary sheds light on problems faced by modern society

STARE IN THE LIGHTS MY PRETTIES

Storyline:

Look around you. People appear to be permanently glued to their electronic devices. Heads bowed and eyes transfixed, our society has been hijacked by these dominating technologies. In less than the span of a single lifetime, we have advanced from rustic computers the size of buildings to extremely capable mobile devices that fit in the palms of our hands. We haven’t even stopped to catch our breath. That’s precisely was Stare Into the Lights My Pretties aims to do. This engrossing and ambitious feature-length documentary outlines the progression of our computerized world, and examines its consequences to this and future generations.

We’ve become fully enveloped in a screen culture. The average person spends more time staring at a screen on any given day than they do sleeping. This has drastically altered the way we interact with others, conduct our personal and business affairs, and experience the world in general. These stimuli are all about shallow sensation, distraction and instant gratification. What they often fail to provide is context, metaphor or meaning. They are changing the way we learn, and the lessons they’re teaching don’t incite critical thought or require a prolonged attention span.

In the film’s view, screen culture has also empowered corporate and government interests with the ideal narcotic with which to control us. Your Google searches offer these structures an unprecedented glimpse into your thoughts, desires, political leanings and other defining characteristics. Everyone from advertisers to politicians have used this data to modify our behaviors and make us subservient to their cause. Online surveillance constitutes a major threat to our basic right of privacy. Yet many users have accepted this intrusion as a necessary evil. Once we willingly relinquish our rights, and allow our lives to become fully immersed in the fantasy fulfillment of our machines, then we have lost our capacity for empathy and autonomy.

On a technical level, Stare Into the Lights My Pretties is top-notch; its ambient scoring and inventive editing style give the film a mesmerizing pull. The filmmakers pose moral and ethical questions that couldn’t be more timely or profound. What kind of world do we want to live in, and do we have the willpower to change it?

Directed by: Jordan Brown

Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.